We're still collecting donations
On the 11th January 2021 we'd raised £6,080 with 136 supporters in 42 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
+ est. £489.50
Help raise money to keep our alpacas safe for a few months while we get the land and barn ready for them to come to their permanent home.
by Sweet Home Alpaca in Roch, Wales, United Kingdom
On the 11th January 2021 we'd raised £6,080 with 136 supporters in 42 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
The first £6,000 will make sure the alpacas have food, medication, care and insurance at their foster home while we catch up with preparing the land. If we raise more than this, we can build a pond on the site. This will benefit the alpacas (who absolutely love water), help to encourage local wildlife, and give us a chance to educate our visitors about conservation.
Just before Covid-19, we started a sustainable alpaca farm in Pembrokeshire, with the aim of contributing to sustainable tourism in our beautiful region.
We were so excited about opening our doors for visitors to enjoy alpaca walks, camp in (extremely) close proximity to these amazing animals and enjoy a sustainable holiday in Wales. We had also been preparing to provide services to local alpaca owners.
Covid-19 has, as for many businesses, thrown a serious spanner in the works, and as a result, our farm is at risk before we've even had a chance to get it off the ground.
Our main difficulty is the delays to the building work on the farm– our alpacas can’t live safely on our farm yet! The herd is currently being housed at another farm, but getting all the care they need doesn't come cheap, and all those costs take away from what we will be able to offer locals and tourists.
We value sustainability above everything else, and we hope to lead the way in sustainable tourism in South Wales. Currently, we are doing all we can. We buy locally and choose suppliers with ethical practices. When we open to the public, we will sell produce – all of it sourced locally. We upcycle where we can, and recycle where we can't. We're currently making a greenhouse from recycled water bottles! Our aim is to ensure that no waste goes to a landfill.
We are also passionate about biodiversity and ensure that we always prioritise renewable energy. Our hope initially was to be entirely off-grid, but we found that it would have actually been less environmentally friendly than tapping into the grid. So, we can't tick the off-grid box, but we can feel satisfied in knowing that we've made the most environmentally friendly decision possible.
As well as the tourism side of our business, we plan to provide services to other alpaca owners and breeders, which will increase the amount of alpaca fleece that can be produced locally – it is a much more sustainable option than sheep's wool.
We also plan to provide alpaca therapy locally (including in care homes), host educational visits, take alpacas to weddings, hold conferences, parties, and other events, which will help to bolster the sustainable tourism industry in South Wales.
We are raising as much money as we can through alpaca adoptions and selling gifts, and personally, we have put everything we have into the business at one point we were even homeless because of covid and lockdown. But what we have raised is not enough to cover the cost of the food, medicine, and overall care of our herd while they wait to come home.
The money we raise on Crowdfunder will pay all of the fees to keep our alpacas safe and well cared for at their temporary home until the barn has been built. This gives us the chance to catch up on the building work and make sure that the alpacas, and our visitors, can safely enjoy the farm when it's ready.
It's taken a lot for us to ask you to help us because self-sufficiency is really important to us. But we feel that we have important work to do for sustainable tourism and for the local region, and so ask that you'll help us if you are in any position to do so.
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